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Zimbabwe says up to 4 million need food aid after drought: state paper
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2016
Reuters: The number of Zimbabweans requiring food aid has risen to 4 million, up from 3 million initially, a state-owned newspaper said on Tuesday, as the southern African nation grapples with its worst drought in more than two decades.
An El Nino induced-drought has hit Zimbabwe hard and last month it appealed for $1.6 billion in aid to help pay for grain and other food.
"Indications are that the figure of vulnerable households requiring food assistance could be as high as four million people," Public...
Environmental risks killing 12.6 million people, WHO study says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2016
Guardian: Nearly one in four deaths are linked to unhealthy environments and are avoidable, a new World Health Organisation study – the first major assessment of environmental risk since 2006 – has shown.
It suggests environmental risks now contribute to more than 100 of the world’s most dangerous diseases, injuries, and kills 12.6 million people a year – nearly one in four or 23% of all deaths.
Of these, two-thirds or 8.2m deaths are from non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as strokes, cancers and...
Fertilizer applied to fields today will pollute water for decades
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2016
ScienceDaily: Dangerous nitrate levels in drinking water could persist for decades, increasing the risk for blue baby syndrome and other serious health concerns, according to a new study published by researchers at the University of Waterloo. Nitrogen fertilizer applied to farmers' fields has been contaminating rivers and lakes and leaching into drinking water wells for more than 80 years. The study, published this week in a special issue of the journal Environmental Research Letters, reveals that elevated nitrate...
Climate change redistributes global water resources
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 14th, 2016
PhysOrg: Analysis of more than 40 years of water samples archived at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF) in New Hampshire tells a vivid tale of how the sources of precipitation have changed. Over the years, there has been a dramatic increase, especially during the winter, of the amount of water that originated far to the north.
"In the later years, we saw more water derived from evaporation of the Arctic and the North Atlantic oceans," said Tamir Puntsag, a graduate student at the SUNY College...
Degrading underground ice wedges are reshaping Arctic landscape
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 14th, 2016
ScienceDaily: Rapid melting of ice and Arctic permafrost is altering tundra regions in Alaska, Canada and Russia, according to a new study released in the journal Nature Geoscience. Ice-wedge degradation has been observed before in individual locations, but this is the first study to determine that rapid melting has become widespread throughout the Arctic.
Southwest Research Institute® (SwRI®) provided time series and change detection analyses of high resolution remote sensing imagery acquired over several...
Zero carbon emissions target to be enshrined in UK law
Posted by Guardian: Motorway Traffic Jam The Uk Is Already Committed To Reducing Carbon Emissions 80 on March 14th, 2016
Guardian: The UK will enshrine in law a long-term goal of reducing its carbon emissions to zero, as called for in last year’s historic Paris climate deal.
Responding to former Labour leader Ed Miliband’s call to put the target into law, energy minister Andrea Leadsom told parliament on Monday: “The government believes that we will need to take the step of enshrining the Paris goal for net zero emissions in UK law. The question is not whether but how we do it.”
The UK is already legally bound by the Climate...
Salmon farmers’ shares rise as Chilean algal bloom boosts prices
Posted by Reuters: Felipe Iturrieta on March 14th, 2016
Reuters: An algal bloom in Chile that has killed up to 20 percent of the nation's farmed salmon has sent shares of producers higher as the reduced supply has lifted selling prices.
Over the last month and a half, salmon farmers in Chile, the second-largest global producer after Norway, have been hit by production losses of around 100,000 tonnes, worth some $800 million, according to industry experts.
The drop in supply from Chile caused global prices last week to rise 25 percent to $5 per pound in Miami,...
As U.S. Coastal Cities Swell, Rising Seas Threaten Millions
Posted by Climate Central: John Upton on March 14th, 2016
Climate Central: A growing number of Americans are moving into homes nestled between the idyllic beaches of the Florida Keys -- part of a national trend that's seeing coastal populations swell even as the seas swell dangerously around them.
That combination of rising populations and rising seas could see millions of Americans living in homes that flood regularly during the decades ahead, according to a nationwide analysis published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change.
That's unless steps are taken to...
Mississippi and Louisiana warily eye rising Pearl River
Posted by Christian Science Monitor: Eva Botkin-Kowacki on March 14th, 2016
Christian Science Monitor: Louisiana and Mississippi emergency officials nervously eye the rising Pearl River which runs along the border of the two states, as more rain is predicted for later this week.
Flooding began last week and has already damaged thousands of homes across the region and claimed at least four lives in Louisiana. In Mississippi, the hunt continued Sunday for two missing fishermen. And this isn't the first time the Pearl River has surged over its banks.
The National Weather Service predicts the river...
Study: Over 13 million coast-dwelling Americans at risk from rising sea levels
Posted by Bloomberg: Eric Roston on March 14th, 2016
Bloomberg: A photo provided by the Nature Conservancy is part of a project to map flooding and coastal damage after El Nino storms with the aim of envisioning the effect of rising sea levels. Twin Lakes Beach in Santa Cruz and Schwann Lagoon, far right, are pictured.
A photo provided by the Nature Conservancy is part of a project to map flooding and coastal damage after El Nino storms with the aim of envisioning the effect of rising sea levels. Twin Lakes Beach in Santa Cruz and Schwann Lagoon, far right,...